The United States has already begun the process against Ovidio Guzmán, ‘El Ratón’, after his extradition from Mexico was completed on Friday, September 15, and in addition to the five charges with which he is mainly accused, it is possible that other charges will be opened. seven, one in which he is related to the distribution of fentanyl, one of the most powerful drugs that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in recent years.
Ovidio Guzmán, leader along with his brothers of ‘Los Chapitos’, one of the main divisions of the Sinaloa Cartel, pleaded not guilty to the five charges, after they were read to him by his lawyer Jeffrey Litchman.
However, in addition to the five charges of which he is accused in Illinois that, if convicted, could lead to life imprisonment in the United States, ‘El Ratón’ faces another six in New York, and one of them would put him as the first criminal leader of a Mexican cartel to face the law on the issue of fentanyl.
This accusation indicates that Ovidio Guzmán and his organization would have produced around 100,000 fentanyl pills a day, many of them mixed with medications in order to create addicts more easily despite the risk that this action implied and that they could kill consumers before poor manufacturing of the drug.
Ovidio Guzmán is accused of fentanyl trafficking along with his brothers Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo, who, according to the newspaper El País, led the largest fentanyl trafficking operation in the world since 2014.
According to the accusations against ‘Los Chapitos’, the faction of the Sinaloa Cartel led by the children of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán would be a pioneer in the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl for almost 10 years, as well as its trafficking in the United States, where it is considered an epidemic due to the number of deaths and addictions it generates year after year.
The US indictments against the brothers, which were unsealed in April, state that their goal was to produce large quantities of fentanyl and sell them at the lowest possible price. The brothers refuted the accusations in a letter.
“We have never produced, manufactured or marketed fentanyl or any of its derivatives,” the letter said. “We are victims of persecution and they made us a scapegoat.”
Given the fight that the United States has against fentanyl, it is possible that this accusation is one of the most controversial in the case against Ovidio Guzmán, who would be the first major boss charged in the fentanyl trafficking network of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most highlighted by the American authorities. It should be noted that most of the people most wanted by the DEA currently are members of the criminal organization and the main accusations are for fentanyl.
What other charges is Ovidio Guzmán accused of?
Ovidio Guzmán was accused this Monday, September 18, of these crimes:
Possession of a controlled drug. Heading a continuing criminal enterprise. Conspiring to produce or manufacture prohibited substances. Money laundering. Carrying firearms.
With information from El País and AP.
2023-09-20 01:02:00
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